Surprising Revelations
by AnonBrowser
Summary: Topher is excited to go onto TDPI and meet Chris McLean in person. He starts having dreams involving him as the day gets closer, but in one of them, his mother reveals something shocking. What does she tell him? Only way to find out is by reading this one-shot!


**Here is my third story. It's another one-shot, which features Topher from TDPI. This is spoiler-free and can safely be read without worries that I'll give away anything big. I hope you all like what follows.**

Christopher "Topher" Pence was a major fan of Chris McLean and his work on Total Drama. He even had a poster of him on his wall, went by the nickname "Chris 2.0", was very narcissistic like him, dressed in similar clothing to him, and named his cat Chef after McLean's assistant. The dirty blonde boy bragged he looked "like a young Chris McLean" in the audition tape he sent in for its sixth season, Pahkitew Island. Topher was ecstatic when he was accepted onto the show and eager to meet his idol. If there was anything the teen was more interested in than that, though, it was taking over his role as host as he wanted to run a TV show himself.

As the season's start approached, he became increasingly excited to get his much-desired camera time. On his last nights before going on the show to meet Chris and try to prove himself a worthy TV host, he dreamed of many far-fetched things involving Total Drama's host, ranging from giving him the money right away to letting him host an episode rather than compete. The boy disregarded his mother's warnings not to get his hopes up too high as they would likely lead to disappointment if they didn't come true.

She had come from a family of show hosts and knew what it was like in the television business. It inspired him at a young age to pursue a TV career as well, but he still wanted to go "where nobody else in the family went before" and didn't always listen to her advice even when he should have. He left out her name entirely to not look like "a leech for family fame". As a widow raising a teenage boy, she had to find ways to make money and raise him at the same time, somehow making them very wealthy in the process.

Topher would sometimes help with behind-camera work on her shows and now wanted to be in front of the camera for a change. However, one big mistake he made in his audition tape was incorrectly assuming she would simply lend him some money to fund his own show, which is why he said there he wasn't concerned with winning that. She wanted him to earn his own cash instead.

However, there was one dream involving McLean that surprised him more than any other. This one took place the night before Topher left for the show. It featured the TV host wannabe going through a box of old documents he found in a closet. At one point, he came across a birth certificate that read "Christopher Jacob McLean Jr." who had the same birth date as him. Dream Topher asked his mother if she accidentally took home the wrong certificate.

"No, Topher, that's actually yours." she replied.

Topher's jaw dropped in shock. He already knew his real name was Christopher, but could this mean he was related to his idol? Up until this point, the teen knew himself as Christopher Otto Pence, and sometimes joked that cops couldn't arrest him on his show when he was also one based on his initials COP. As he boy continued to read, the boy found her name Tracy Ulysses Gilbert listed as his mother and "Christopher Jacob McLean" as his father. He asked if that was his father's actual name and he went by the pseudonym Otto Clinton Pence.

"Otto was not your biological father." Topher's mother explained to his surprise. "I met him five months after you were born and gave you his last name after we married two years later, knowing the close bond you two had and felt it would be a nice way to show appreciation for helping me raise you. While both of us agreed to let you keep your first name as it would've been too confusing for you at such a young age then to go by something else entirely, we also legally changed your middle name for him."

Topher had indeed cherished his time with Otto and was devastated when the man died of cancer shortly after his sixth birthday, but after hearing that the man he knew as his father wasn't related to him after all, another thought filled his mind: Was his biological father the one and only Chris McLean from Total Drama? It would blow his mind if the answer was yes.

He asked Tracy who had fathered him, and she confirmed his suspicions. "Chris McLean and I dated for a while and separated before either of us knew I was pregnant with his child, and that was you. By the time I found out, he had already moved far away, and I had no way of contacting him. I gave you his name because I missed him and wanted to honor the good memories we had beforehand."

If Topher's jaw could have dropped even more than it already had earlier, then it would have done so right then and there.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner about this?" he asked his mother.

"As I said before, I knew you and Otto loved being together, and some part of me knew it would break your heart if you were told the truth too soon. Looking back, I should've told you as soon as you started getting into Total Drama as you were old enough to handle it then." she told him.

"Does bringing back certain memories have anything to do with why you would sometimes wish I didn't try being so much like Chris?" Topher questioned.

"To an extent, yes. At the same time, you did inherit some of his charm and I enjoyed seeing your happiness more than I was irked by him. People weren't lying when they said you looked like a young version of him, but of course you got your hair and eye colors from me." Tracy affirmed.

Someone then knocked on the door.

"That must be him" the two said at the same time.

However, as Topher was about to open it, he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. "That has to be the wildest Chris dream yet!" he thought to himself.

The teen then got a flashlight and went through a closet. Just to confirm that he was only dreaming, he looked for his birth certificate and photos of him taken with Otto. The certificate read "Christopher Otto Pence" and he had Tracy listed as his mother as well as Otto Pence listed as his father. There were also photos of Tracy and Otto holding a newborn Topher. He signed in relief that it was just a crazy dream. The boy did highly admire Chris, but there was no way he could replace Otto in his life even if the host was related to him at all. He then went back to sleep, still eager to meet McLean and get some screen time.

 **THE END**

 **This is definitely a change of pace from my two previous fics, "A Life-Changing Attack" and "Similar Dreams", which were one-shots that took place during and in between actual Total Drama episodes. It of course more closely resembles my "Similar Dreams" story for delving into dreams that characters have. After watching Topher's audition tape and seeing similarities to Chris a while ago, I thought "What if they were actually related?", and came up with a crazy dream where they were. It's never mentioned whether McLean's actual first name is "Christian", "Christopher", or anything else, but I thought that "Topher" being another nickname for "Christopher" could fit in well with the host being a "Christopher". Topher's last name isn't actually given in the series and is just something I randomly chose. Same goes for both of their middle names (or lack thereof). The only people in this fic that I own are Otto and Tracy, Topher's parents that I made up. I also felt that making Tracy and her family TV hosts could provide some backstory as to why Topher wants to become one. Hope everybody liked reading this piece! Please review with what you enjoyed and/or details on how to improve.**


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